Power Tool: High Achievement vs. Perfectionism

2012/09/18

A Coaching Power Tool created by Galit Lazar(Film Industry Coach, CANADA)

What is the Difference Between High-Achievement and Perfectionism? What Does Each One Means?

Jane Fonda said:” Life is about being whole, not perfect”. Oprah Winfrey says that her entire life she strived for excellence and that her purpose in life is to be the best in what she does. We live in a society where everything is expected to be perfect. When we make mistakes we are being judged by others. If one failed at something, it tends to not be discussed. The person who failed feels like a loser and certain people see people who fail as losers. This where the perfectionist is born.

This tool was developed to help clients see that real success is in excellence and not in perfection. The coach wants to give his clients the opportunity to see that there is a much easier, stress free, pressure free way to success. This is the objective of this tool, to help clients become high-achievers rather than perfectionists.

High achievement means striving to excel. It means to be able to overcome one’s fears to do what one is able to do and not be afraid to make mistakes.

The High achiever sees mistakes as opportunities and tends to see this as an occasion to become better and outdo himself at what he does.

High-achievement means using all your greatest potential to excel fearlessly.

The difference between a high-achiever and perfectionism is that a high-achiever relish the process of creating and manifesting something , and once they start they don‘t look back-they keep moving.

(Donna Toothaker)

Perfection means that you have a perspective of life where everything is flawless and perfect. The perfectionist lives a life with insecurity and fear. The one biggest fear of the perfectionist is making mistakes. In turn making mistakes equals failure and this in turn equals being rejected and unloved. The perfectionist sees making mistakes as the end of the world. Every mistake will cost him a high price and he does not know how he will be able to correct it. The perfectionist is afraid of being inadequate, not good enough, a loser. What happens is he gets stuck in taking decisions and actions that are not beneficial for him. Many times the perfectionist will ask several people for advice to make him take decisions because he can’t trust himself.

The perfectionist also always feels guilt especially when something did not give the result he wants. He can never enjoy the process, he is more result-driven. He lives with very high expectations. He lives with constant stress and self-pressure to perform perfectly.

Perfectionists on the other hand…and are so driven to succeed-or rather, not to fail-that many times they don’t even begin the creation process due to overwhelm.

(Donna Toothaker)

The online version of the Merriam Webster Dictionary defines perfectionism as a ‘disposition to regard anything short of perfection as unacceptable.’ In contrast, professionals who study perfectionism tend to define the term in more detail. For example, in his frequently cited article in Psychology Today, psychiatrist David Burns (1980) defined perfectionists as people ‘whose standards are high beyond reach or reason’ and ‘who strain compulsively and unremittingly toward impossible goals and who measure their own worth entirely in terms of productivity and accomplishment.

(Martin M. Anthony PHD. And Richard P. Swinson, MD)

The high achiever always succeeds effortlessly. He reaches high places and positions in society and success follows him everywhere. The high achiever tends to have a high focus on a certain goal. He focuses on that goal until he achieves it. The high achiever feels very secure about himself and believes in his own capabilities very strongly. Unlike the perfectionist, he allows success to come to him rather than chasing after it. The high achiever tends to focus all his attention on doing the best job he can do and puts emphasis on the task at hand.